According to a recent report by the Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities (PREO) program, Nigeria, a nation with a high demand for motorcycles, locally known as “Okadas,” which have served as a means of transportation for millions of people, is expected to enter the $ 5.07 billion sub-Saharan African market for electric motorcycles.
According to PREO, such electric motorcycles will be crucial in transforming sub-Saharan Africa’s transportation sector toward sustainability.
The analysis described the market opportunity for e-motorcycles and projected that it would become a key component of Africa’s estimated $3.65 billion e-mobility market by 2021. By 2027, the market is anticipated to increase to $5.07 billion.
According to Jon Lane, head of the PREO program, “investing in e-motorcycles offers a path to more sustainable and equitable growth throughout African communities and addresses the important issue of climate change.”
Lane emphasized that two-wheelers are quicker and simpler to maneuver than four-wheeled vehicles, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where roads are frequently of low quality.
According to PREO, maximizing the potential will depend on ongoing investment in start-ups that addresses obstacles throughout the value chain.
Industry estimates claim that more than 90% of the electric motorcycles marketed in sub-Saharan Africa are imports from China and India and weren’t made for the continent’s climate.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, many new electric motorcycle startups rely on imported completely manufactured or complete knock-down (CKD) units that are then put together locally. Due to dirt roads, lengthy distances, and heavy commercial use, the electric motorcycle experiences severe wear and tear due to the region’s frequently difficult terrain. Electric motorcycles are not tailored for the African terrain because suppliers are primarily headquartered in India, China, and Southeast Asia, according to PREO in the research.
Further, it stated that electric motorcycles are anticipated to lead the shift to sustainable transportation in sub-Saharan Africa, but that in order to fully realize the market’s potential, start-ups must continue to get investment to address bottlenecks along the value chain.
Nigeria has a plentiful supply of raw resources, particularly minerals and metals, a developing economy, and a huge population, all of which are necessary to produce electric vehicles. But, the country’s lackluster domestic production still leaves a sizable gap that must be supplied by imports.
We have discovered prospects for a complete ecosystem of solutions that address problems across the value chain through our collaboration with many start-ups. We hope that this research will serve as a call to action for investors, governments, and partners to engage and work together to help tackle the enormity of the challenge while also highlighting the excellent progress being made by businesses in the e-mobility industry, added Lane.
A Swedish-Kenyan business called Roam makes durable electric motorcycles there. The business is showcasing how the cost of electric bikes may be reduced to compete with ICE (internal combustion engine) cars while also being tailored to local needs with the help of local manufacture and assembly.
According to PREO, “Roam today has the ability to fully design the vehicles and build 35 percent of them internally, with an aim of reaching 70 percent in the next three to five years.”
Via collaborations, the business intends to grow outside of Kenya into other African markets, generate $17.5 million in stock and debt for operating capital, and provide Uber with 3,000 electric motorcycles for its delivery services throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
“With the help of PREO, we were able to test our product-market fit, speed the development of our next-generation electric motorcycle, which is now scale-ready, and improve our business models.
The grant from PREO assisted us with early-stage production costs for pilots and ultimately aided in the commercialization of a product that increases end-user earnings and has a beneficial environmental impact, according to Filip Lövström, co-founder and CEO of Roam.
By using solar energy to charge the batteries and running one of the largest networks of battery-swap stations for electric motorcycles in the region, the 27 battery-swap stations operated by the Ugandan company Zembo make it possible to deploy e-motorcycles in locations with weak and unstable access to electricity.
Mobile Power addresses the lack of high-quality battery solutions for small enterprises in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria.
